Father Michael

Father Michael was a French Roman Catholic priest who served at the court of King Henry II of France during the mid-16th century. In 1559, Queen Catherine de Medici enlisted his aid in attempting to poison her insane husband as he received communion, but King Henry realized that he was about to be murdered when a guard menacingly approached him with a sword; Henry killed the guard and thwarted the plot. Michael later became a farmer, going into hiding to avoid the King's fury. In December 1559, Lord Stephane Narcisse kidnapped him, intending on using him as a witness to King Francis II of France's role in his own father's death. He informed King Francis that Narcisse's lieutenant Balfont had imprisoned him and Gabriel Montgomery, the two witnesses to Francis' plot against his father, and King Francis and his half-brother Sebastian de Poitiers went on to plot against Narcisse in retaliation.